Scientists with the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have re-created the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder in several honeybee hives simply by giving them small doses of a popular pesticide, imidacloprid. Bee populations have been dying mysteriously throughout North America and Europe since 2006, but the cause behind the decline, known as Colony Collapse Disorder, has eluded scientists. However, coming on the heels of two studies published last week in Science that linked bee declines to neonicotinoid pesticides, of which imidacloprid is one, the new study adds more evidence that the major player behind Colony Collapse Disorder is not disease, or mites, but pesticides that began to be widely used in the 1990s.

Past research has shown that neonicotinoid pesticides, which target insects' central nervous system, do not instantly kill bees. However, to test the effect of even small amounts of these pesticides on western honeybees (Apis mellifera), Harvard researchers treated 16 hives with different levels of imidacloprid, leaving four hives untreated. After 12 weeks, the bees in all twenty hives—treated and untreated—were alive, though those treated with the highest does of imidacloprid appeared weaker. But by 23 weeks everything had changed: 15 out of the 16 hives (94 percent) treated with imidacloprid underwent classic Colony Collapse Disorder: hives were largely empty with only a few young bees surviving. The adults had simply vanished. The hives that received the highest doses of imidacloprid collapsed first. Meanwhile the five untreated hives were healthy

"There is no question that neonicotinoids put a huge stress on the survival of honey bees in the environment," lead author Chensheng (Alex) Lu, an associate professor at the HSPH, told mongabay.com. "The evidence is clear that imidacloprid is likely the culprit for Colony Collapse Disorder via a very unique mechanism that has not been reported until our study,"

That mechanism? High-fructose corn syrup. Many bee-keepers have turned to high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees, which the researchers say did not imperil bees until U.S. corn began to be sprayed with imidacloprid in 2004-2005. A year later was the first outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder.

It doesn't take much to eventually kill the bees accord to Lu, who said an incredibly small amount (20 parts per billion) of imidacloprid was enough to lead to Colony Collapse Disorder within 6 months.

More evidence

Lu's research follows two widely-reported studies last week that also linked Colony Collapse Disorder to neonicotinoid pesticides.

A U.K. team exposed buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to small doses of imidacloprid, and placed the bees in an enclosed natural setting where they could forage free. After six weeks (a far shorter time than Lu's study), the team weighed the nests and compared them with control colonies that had not been exposed. Treated colonies were on average 8-12 percent smaller than the colonies that had not been exposed, which implies that exposed bees were not gathering as much food. However, even more alarming was the case of the missing queens. Pesticide-exposed colonies produced 85 percent fewer queens: a total of only around 1-2 queens per hive. Queens are the most important bees in a colony, since they found new colonies after winter when all the other bees perish.

A second study, this one conducted in France, shows directly how neonicotinoid pesticides may be impacting bees, eventually leading to the collapse of the colony. Researchers glued tiny microchips to free-ranging western honeybees in order to track their movements. They then administered small does of a different neonicotinoid pesticide, called thiamethoxam, to a portion of the bees. Exposed bees were two to three times more likely to not return from foraging excursions than unexposed bees.

Their findings imply that neonicotinoid pesticide weakens a bees' homing ability, so instead of returning to the hive, the bee gets lost and perishes. This would explain why hives impacted by Colony Collapse Disorder are found largely empty of worker bees: the pesticide theoretically impacts their ability to find their way home.

It has taken a long time to understand the link between Colony Collapse Disorder and neonicotinoid pesticides, because scientists were looking for an instant-killer, and not something that caused slow deaths over several months, says Lu. In addition he adds that scientists ignored "the fact that the timeline of increasing use of neonicotinoids coincides with the decline of bee populations."

Lu says policy makers "need to examine the effect of sub-lethal doses of pesticides throughout the life cycle of the test model (in this case honey bees)." He further notes the depending on LD50 findings (i.e. a lethal dose that results in the death of half of the specimens tested) "is not relevant to the modern day chemical toxicity testing." In other words, regulators need to start testing the long-term impacts of chemicals in the environment, and not simply focused on whether or not they instantly kill test subjects.

Bees play vital roles in a wide-variety of ecosystems as pollinators. In turn they provide massive economic benefits to human society, both through the production of honey and, even more importantly, the pollination of a large variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and flower crops. The economic value of honeybees in the U.S. alone has been estimated at $8-12 billion.

save the fucking bees or superman is gonna kick your ass. LOL i do my best in the city to provide flowers and such for em. in return i get good veggie yields. wanna get a hive but its a touchy issue in the city. still thinking about it anyhow. cityfarmers has the gear and know how.

But will the companies that make this shit - or similar poisons - ever accept the financial burden they have put all the farmers in? Not a chance - their heavily paid employees in gov't (read OUR representatives) will shill and obfuscate for them, and they won't actually ever pay a cent.

its not just the pesticides that are causing their problems,, diet is a big factor as well from poor variety of nectar producing plants,, as well as other factors which wear them down as a hive,,

i always knew that most of these pesticides affected bees on some level,, as did most entomologists worth their salt,,

a big part of the problem is also the ever lowering water table which is bad for all insect life and plant diversity in general, it has only gotten quantitatively worse for the last 30+ years as more and more rain water lands on concrete and is stolen by the powers that be,,

relatively there is basically no insect life compared to what it was like just a few decades ago,,

__________________

"The kingdom of heaven is within you and without you ; any man who knows himself shall find it"

Pesticides not a serious threat to bees - Defra
2 November 2009 | By William Surman

DEFRA has angered anti-pesticide campaigners after it claimed chemical sprays were not to blame for the sharp decline in British bee numbers.

During parliamentary questions last week, the Department also defended the use of public money to investigate the health of bees in a jointly funded research project with the pesticide manufacturers Syngenta.
Bees contribute up to £200 million to the agricultural economy every year, mainly through crop pollination and honey production, but a combination of disease, a changing climate and poor bee husbandry has led to a 15 per cent decline in their numbers in just two years.

This has lead to a flurry of research projects from Defra, worth over £4 million, to arrest the decline but critics argue the threat of pesticides is being ignored.

Dan Norris, Defra minister, told MPs in the House of Commons that the Government took the drop in bee numbers ‘very seriously’ but said adequate measures were already in place to protect bees against harmful sprays.

“There is no evidence that authorised pesticides pose an unacceptable risk,” he said.
But a documentary released in UK cinemas last month claims otherwise.

Vanishing of the Bees blames the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides for the decline in bee colonies.

Further, Syngenta’s neonicotinoid pesticide, thiamexotham, was recently described as ‘deadly to honey bees’ by an American study.

The Government’s decision to commit public money to a £1 million joint research venture with Syngenta has therefore been met with some scepticism.

David Taylor, MP for North West Leicestershire, questioned whether a project, part funded by a pesticide manufacturer, would ‘fully investigate the links between neonicotinoids and the collapse in bee numbers’.
However, Defra reassured Mr Taylor that no stone would go unturned in its investigations.

“We will, of course, consider all the research, including that commissioned by pesticide companies, into this important issue, but we will also ensure that the highest possible standards are maintained,” said Defra’s Mr Norris.

Bees seem to do fine on some mono cultures like heather , maybe a diet of rape pollen is lacking something.

More money has been wasted on poxy pandas than important environmental research on essential bees.

its not just the pesticides that are causing their problems,, diet is a big factor as well from poor variety of nectar producing plants,, as well as other factors which wear them down as a hive,,

i always knew that most of these pesticides affected bees on some level,, as did most entomologists worth their salt,,

a big part of the problem is also the ever lowering water table which is bad for all insect life and plant diversity in general, it has only gotten quantitatively worse for the last 30+ years as more and more rain water lands on concrete and is stolen by the powers that be,,

relatively there is basically no insect life compared to what it was like just a few decades ago,,